SEC seeks to sue Dow Jones director

WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission plans to sue a Dow Jones & Co. board member for insider-trading, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Bank of East Asia Ltd. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David Li received a so-called Wells notice saying the SEC staff had determined it would bring a civil action against him, the Dow Jones newspaper reported.

Li has one last chance to persuade the agency not to bring the case, the notice said.

A woman who answered the phone at Li's Hong Kong home told the Journal he was unavailable to comment.

Li said in May he "did not disclose to anyone, not even my wife, any information about Dow Jones."

An SEC spokesman declined to comment.

The SEC alleges Li is connected to Hong Kong businessman Michael Leung Kai Hung, who the SEC alleges transferred money to his daughter and her husband -- which the couple then used to buy 415,000 shares of Dow Jones stock -- two weeks before Rupert Murdoch's initial overture to buy Dow Jones was made public.

The SEC charged the Hong Kong couple May 8 with insider trading.

A federal judge froze their Dow Jones assets.